I couldn’t get Hebrews 10 out of my mind as I pondered this. Hebrews 10:25 is the verse that pastors love to remind people that they really should go to a church service on a Sunday, and it is well suited for that purpose. The writer warns that they shouldn’t be like those who neglect to meet together regularly, thus reminding us once and for all that the gathering of the saints is an essential activity in the life of the believer. But, there are three imperatives in the verses leading up to verse 25 that I think describe some of what we are supposed to be experiencing when we do gather.

These are my prayers for us as a church in the years ahead, however many of them the Lord allows. I pray that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will. I pray that you would walk in grace in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him and bearing fruit in good works! I pray that you would be strengthened with all power from God, and that His power would sustain you for endurance and patience and supernatural joy which overflows in hearts full of thanksgiving. I pray that you would remember, and believe, and be certain that He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints, and I pray that this would liberate and motivate you to live for Him!

The world is in a bit of a mess. I don’t think we need to deny that. And yet, it has always been that way and I believe it always will until Jesus comes to rule and reign over its re-creation. In the meanwhile though, He continues to work, and to move, and to save, and to redeem. Most often though it is the private and unseen life of people like John in the wilderness more than it is in the halls of highest power and the glitz and glamor of the elite spaces we sacrifice our lives to attain.

I love how earthy and human and gritty the Christmas story is. It takes the seemingly abstract notion of an eternal creator and injects Him into the dirt of the world that He made.

Every Thursday I write a pastoral letter to my congregation, hoping that it helps us to pay attention to the reality of God together in the midst busy and distracting weeks.

This one is about family mantras, John’s first epistle, and our favorite Australian dog cartoon.

One of the limitations of our (frankly quite incredible) human brains is that they are not able to pay attention to everything, and certainly not able to pay attention to everything equally, at the same time. And so, in a world that is constantly fighting to gain and indeed to keep our attention, what we are attentive to becomes one of our most important and influential decisions. Attention is a precious commodity that we should spend with care, saving its value for the most important of things.

I tend to waste a lot of energy asking a question that God thinks is rhetorical. When I wonder if the love of God is real and available and vibrant towards me, I am essentially asking a question that God settled long ago, and I love that He did it in such a tangible way.

In the day to day distraction of life, I tend to forget that I am going to die.

In the day to day distraction of life, I also tend to forget that I will be resurrected to live forever.

The reminder of those two realities helps me to remember that I shouldn’t waste time!

The story of God’s faithfulness recorded for us in scripture is always multi-generational. God even reveals himself as the one who works through multiple generations (Ex 3:6) and gives us the mandate of living in a way that will result in multi-generational faith impact (Ps 145:4; Eph 3:21). We are called to be those who plant trees, the shade of which we will never sit under, but whose shade will be enjoyed nonetheless.

I can get stuck in a rut of shame and self-loathing and then I can convince myself that there is something pious and rewarding about that sort of self-regard (or lack thereof) as if God is pleased when I hate myself and berate myself continually for the things I have done or failed to do. This is beyond the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but is rather more akin to the accusatory cries of God’s enemy, who we know never grows hoarse from hurling those accusations day and night.